Abortion Divides Firm Hired to Help Fight It

By TAMAR LEWIN

Published: April 18, 1990

Hill & Knowlton, the nation's largest public relations firm, has created a public relations problem on its own turf by taking on an anti-abortion campaign for the nation's Roman Catholic bishops.

The new account, worth $3 million to $5 million over the next three to five years, has sparked intense fighting in the firm. Several women who work there have offered their services, free, to groups that support the right to choose an abortion. The firm acknowledges it has lost at least one employee and one client, and there are reports that other clients and workers have threatened to defect.

''There has never been anything so divisive here before,'' said one high-ranking Hill & Knowlton employee, who asked not to be identified. ''You know it's bad when you have people talking about how they're going to subvert the campaign.''

The campaign, announced earlier this month by the bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities, is designed to persuade both Catholics and non-Catholics to oppose abortion. The bishops have also engaged a politically connected polling concern in Washington, the Wirthlin Group, to help in the nationwide project.

Others Said 'No'

John Cardinal O'Connor, the Archbishop of New York, who heads the bishops' committee, said in an interview yesterday that two public relations firms, which he would not identify, had turned down the account.

Robert Hope, a spokesman for Burson Marsteller, which was reportedly one of the firms, said his firm had conducted only preliminary discussions with the church.

''We just don't represent religious issues,'' he said.

John Berard, deputy general manager of the District of Columbia office of Hill & Knowlton, which will actually handle the account, said the firm had lost one client, a graphics concern, because of the abortion account, and had also lost a junior employee at a small branch office. Women at the firm said there had been another resignation, and a significant loss of business.

''I don't think there's anybody who feels we've shot ourselves in the foot,'' Mr. Berard said. ''This is a firm that has always taken on controversial issues. Ultimately, the spirited debate that is going on internally may have more effect on how decisions get made here than on this campaign. No one is thinking about giving up the client. We've already had some meetings.'' Trying to 'Move the Debate'

Mr. Berard stressed that no one at Hill & Knowlton is required to work on any account he or she finds offensive.

''Hill & Knowlton employees are a lot like everyone else,'' Mr. Berard said, ''and there are a lot of differences of opinion. Part of what the conference asked us to do is move the debate from being a polarizing, never-ending political battle into a reasonable debate, and maybe the spirited discussions we are now having are part of that.''

The expressions of dissent in the agency have taken several forms.

In the 400-person New York office, where most of the employees are women, workers said 136 women and men had signed a petition protesting the decision to represent the church.

Letters and Petitions

''We should not be representing any group in its advocacy of a position which would restrict the fundamental rights of all of us as Americans,'' said the petition sent to Robert Dilenschneider, the president and chief executive of Hill & Knowlton.

And in the firm's District of Columbia office, 10 senior women wrote a letter to Robert Gray, the chairman, complaining that they had not been consulted earlier.

Several women who work for Hill & Knowlton in different offices have offered to provide free services to groups that advocate abortion rights.

''We have had numerous contacts by Hill & Knowlton employees around the country who are providing us with information and offering us their services, pro bono, because they are so disturbed by the firm's decision to work against abortion,'' said Kate Michelman, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League in Washington.

Another Hill & Knowlton employee, who also asked not to be identified, said there had been talk of setting up a formal group to offer help to supporters of abortion rights. But, she said, ''we decided that would go over the line.''

The dispute has had effects at other firms, too. Several partners at Sawyer/Miller Group, another New York public relations firm, offered their services, free, to Catholics for a Free Choice, a Washington-based organization.

''We're just doing what's comfortable for us,'' said Larry Walsh, a partner at Sawyer/ Miller Group, ''and I don't take umbrage with what anybody else is doing.'' .